1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to clamps which may be used to fasten and release with relative ease rods, hoses, burets, electrodes, pipes, cylindrical columns, test tubes, poles, posts, reaction vessels and many other laboratory, household, industrial, and commercial items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, a typical clamp used to secure laboratory apparatus consists of a rigid extension rod used as the support member to which is connected the clamping mechanism or means. The clamping means is usually comprised of two curved arms, uses one or two screws to open and close the arms around an object and is attached to one end of the extension rod. These clamps come in several sizes and are intended to hold items as small as a 5 milliliter (mL) round-bottom flask to objects as large as a 4000-mL Erlenmeyer flask. These clamps are made of metal, are heavy, can be quite expensive, eventually corrode, and often can be awkward to use because of the necessity to close the "jaw" of the clamp by means of screws. There is also a finite amount of time associated with turning the screws (assuming they are not corroded and one can turn them at all-) and making sure that equal pressure is exerted on either side of the object being secured. Perhaps more importantly, this operation requires both hands: one for holding the object while the other is used going back and forth in an effort to tighten the opposite screws as evenly as possible. Furthermore, workers who suffer from a physical handicap (for instance, those with only one useful hand or with impaired motor skills) can find present clamps very difficult if not impossible to use.
Time and dexterity are important considerations during the critical moments of a laboratory experiment. Situations frequently arise when a flask has to be transferred quickly from one area of the bench to another, or from the bench to a vented space or within the venting hood from a heating bath to a cooling medium. Success or failure can be governed by the speed with which one can work. Additionally, the manipulation of syringes, needles, reagent bottles, hoses, and jack stands during the course of a single reaction, all the while wearing gloves (or worse while working in a drybox wearing heavy gloves), requires considerable skill. The successful performance of these various jobs is hampered by difficult to manipulate clamps. One could recruit the help of an assistant to hold the flask or object in position while one uses both hands to simultaneously tighten down the screws of an ordinary clamp (even so one has to work around the assistant's arm). Clearly, there is a need for a device that can secure and release an object such as a reaction flask in one quick and easy motion and which allows the use of only one hand (the one holding the object), thus freeing the other hand to do something else (like hold a syringe). Such an ideal clamp would be of considerable utility to a skilled worker, let alone to one with a physical handicap.